


Secrets

by IShouldBeWriting



Category: Castle
Genre: F/M, Taming the Shrew, learning to love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 12:58:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/774466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShouldBeWriting/pseuds/IShouldBeWriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes an act of will to bite her tongue on the defensiveness, but she still believes he's going to be worth the effort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secrets

“With your permission,” he offered, the hint of that tiny, boyish smile flitting around the right corner of his lips, “I’d like to...”

For a moment she’d been so outraged by the sheer ego of the man that she hadn’t really listened. But in that fraction of a moment between inhaling and beginning to speak, Kate had remembered her promise.

He’d come back to her. She’d pretended it didn’t matter, but it had. She couldn’t admit it yet, not even within the safety of her own head. But without him fierce, strong, independent, Detective Kate Beckett hadn’t been her best. She’d been distracted. During those months apart, her heart just hadn’t been in the job any more. When he returned it was like the iron band of loneliness and anxiety had finally been removed from around her ribs. She’d begun living her life again; no longer going straight from the precinct to the gym each night to work her body until she dropped. She’d begun taking luxuriantly long baths again at the end of a long day or pulling out her dad’s old steel-string guitar to strum out some bit of a tune when it rained.

She’d made a promise to herself. From that day forward she’d sworn that she would truly think about what he was saying every time he made her angry. She’d spent months – far more time she was sure than the average officer ever voluntarily submitted to – working with the departmental shrink to understand why she’d always become so verbally defensive around him. She’d spent been months curled up in the corner of that sleek leather couch, arms wrapped tightly around a pillow as she tried to let the therapist in deeply enough to help her finally understand herself.

In the privacy of her own head, it was easy for Kate to admit that she’d known the answer all along; she loved him. It was positively predictable and oh how that had angered her, made her dig in her stubborn heels and fight not to give in to the way she felt. But then there would be moments like this one when he unselfconsciously did something so thoughtful, so perfect, that she momentarily went breathless before being able to formulate the words for an answer. In that moment she had finally learned to think; to truly consider what he was offering. And when she did, the majority of the time, strong, independent, self-reliant, hard-ass, Kate couldn’t help but melt.

How terribly trite it all was. Just like Shakespeare, shrewish Kate had finally learned to love.


End file.
